The present disclosure relates to a gas turbine engine and, more particularly, to a combustor section therefor.
Gas turbine engines generally include a compressor section to pressurize an airflow, a combustor section to burn a hydrocarbon fuel in the presence of the pressurized air, and a turbine section to extract energy from the resultant combustion gases. Combustion of the hydrocarbon fuel in the presence of pressurized air may produce nitrogen oxide (NOX) emissions that are subjected to excessively stringent controls by regulatory authorities, and thus may be sought to be minimized.
Dry Low NOx (DLN) combustor sections utilize a fuel-to-air lean premix strategy which operates near flame stability envelope limits where noise, flame blow-off (BO), and flashback may affect engine performance such that the DLN strategy may be limited to land-based industrial gas turbine architectures. In some DLN strategies, significant piloting is utilized to control combustion dynamics. Such strategies, although effective, may produce nitrogen oxide (NOX) emissions that are subjected to excessively stringent controls by regulatory authorities and thus may be sought to be minimized.